Chapter Text
“And a few splashes of vanilla extract and it should be good.”
Sara put the bottle of vanilla extract down and started to mix the batter, at times feeling the batter was trying to fight back, until it was smooth and lumpless. She poured the batter into the pan and put the domed top over it, twisting until it locked in place. And the rest of the batter went into a smaller baking dish that would serve as the bottom of the cake.
“Now it says to put it in the oven and bake for thirty minutes.”
Sara pulled the oven door open, feeling the heat almost blasting in her face, and put the batter filled pan in the oven. She closed the door, set the time, and stood back.
Now what to do while the cake was baking?
Sara already got out the icing. White, pink, and baby blue, for a cute gender reveal cake. And she had the blue pudding mix chilling in the fridge for the filling. So there wasn't really anything she could do.
Maybe make a card?
Yeah, she could do that.
Sara grabbed a piece of paper and some colored pencils to work on the card, but just as she set them down, the radio started playing “Better When I'm Dancing” by Megan Trainor, and Sara already felt the music enticing her to move her body to the beat.
It started with just tapping her foot to the rhythm, with Sara trying to focus on her drawing of a stork holding a bundle in its beak. Then Sara's body started to sway with the music, no matter how much she tried to resist it. And when the first chorus came, Sara was out of her seat and was stepping and twirling along to the beat, sliding across the floor as she let the music carry her. And soon enough, she was dancing her heart away to the song, getting lost in the music and her moves, her heart feeling like it was soaring with each step, her soul feeling like it was in heaven with each jump and twirl. In that moment, nothing else mattered. Not the card, not waiting for the cake in the oven to finish baking, nothing but the music and her dancing.
It was only when the song ended that Sara was aware of her surroundings again, and in a panic, she looked around in the hopes that nobody noticed her dancing, even when, being in the comfort of her own apartment, such a worry was unreasonable. Sara sighed in relief and finished up the card just as the oven timer beeped, and she grabbed some oven mitts and took the baking pans out of the oven and set it aside to cool.
“Alright, now where was the address again?” Sara looked around her apartment, trying to retrace her steps, going into her bedroom and looking on the nightstand, hen in the bathroom, then in the living room, then noticing the folded piece of paper in the key dish on the counter. “Ah, there it is.” Sara unfolded the piece of paper, taking a quick glance at the address, and put it back down in the key dish. The address was where she was going to meet up with Julia and Jett to give them the cake for their friend's baby shower. Apparently their friend, Poppy, is expecting a child with not exactly famous but quite well known dancer Ravid, something Sara didn't learn about, or the fact that Poppy and Ravid were in a relationship to begin with, until she heard the gossip in the apartment lobby. She wasn't one to go for celebrity news, but in her apartment complex, whenever there was something interesting going on, it was guaranteed Sara would hear about it one way or another. And if not from the people in her apartment complex gossiping about it, then she most certainly would've heard it from overhearing Jett and Julia talking about it, and the baby shower that was planned. When they talked about the cake, for some reason that she couldn't remember, Sara offered to make the cake for them.
And speaking of the cake, Sara checked on it, and it was cool enough for filling and icing. Sara took the top part of the baking dish off and grabbed the pudding filling out of the fridge and scooped it into the cavity before taking the bottom part of the cake and putting it on top. She flipped the cake onto the decorating turntable, grabbed the icing and put it into piping bags, and spun the turntable as she started decorating, starting with the white icing. She spun the turntable as she slowly moved down, making sure that the whole cake was covered, then she smoothed it out before adding stripes and other cute designs with the pink and blue icing, even piping tricolor designs on the top. The finishing touch was an attempt to write “Boy or Girl” on the top of the cake. And with a touch of sprinkles, the cake was ready to be boxed up and delivered, and just in time as well.
Sara secured the cake box in the basket, alongside the card, got on her bike, and started pedaling, feeling the wind in her bright blue hair. She went down the route she practiced whenever she had the chance to, ready to turn way before the turn came up, and having already guessed when she would need to ring the bell to alert others of her presence, until she stopped right where Jett and Julia were. “Here's the cake.” Sara said cheerfully as she presented the cake box and card to the girls.
“Oh, Poppy's gonna love the cake!” Jett exclaimed as she saw the cake.
“She totally will! And the card too!” Julia exclaimed, “Thank you so much! Here's a little something for the cake.”
When Sara saw Julia digging into her wallet, Sara waved her hands in front of her and said, “Please, please, it was nothing, I just wanted to do something for you.”
“No, we insist!”
Before Sara could get another word in, she was handed some mojo bills. Well, there's no arguing with a little extra money, so Sara smiled and thanked them. But as she turned around to get on her bike, she bumped into a guy with short spiky orange hair wearing visor sunglasses, who she recognized as Kapyy. “Oh my Selios, I'm so sorry!” Sara blurted out as she stumbled back.
“It's okay.” Kapyy said, “I'm good, and the basket isn't any more broken.”
“Basket? More broken?”
Sara then noticed the man next to the man she bumped into, Kwang, who was wearing cowboy-like clothes, with his shawl covering the lower half of his face. And in his arms was a basket with the handle very bent and breaking a little, and some of the walls looking like they were caving in. “At least none of the goods were damaged.” Kapyy added.
“What happened?” Sara asked, more to herself than anybody.
“To put it shortly,” Kwang said, “I kinda tripped over the basket, and I kinda pinned the blame on everyone else.”
“Except me.” Kapyy said, “He wouldn't let me take the blame.”
“And the members of the extreme crew that were with us got into a huge fight over it.”
Sara sucked some air through her teeth, “Sheesh, that sounded like a very rough fight. No wonder why you seem full with regret.”
“I don't regret a thing.” Kwang said.
“Well, even if it's a little scuffed,” Jett reassured, even when that basket was definitely more than a little scuffed, “I'm sure Ravid and Poppy will love the gifts. Now come on, there's a baby shower waiting.”
Jett and Julia waved to Sara and Sara waved back as she got on her bike and turned back around.
Sara kept riding along until she heard some muffled music coming from the dance studio, which made her stop dead in her tracks, walk her bike over to park it, and went over to the dance studio to have a better listened. Upon getting a better listen, she recognized the song as Wannabe by Spice Girls, and she had to will her body to not give into the temptation to dance to the music, and against her better judgment, she opened the door and stepped inside, where the music was louder and almost like a siren's song.
Sara covered her ears to keep herself from getting lost in the song and dancing when there could be people staring at her, and ran into whatever room she could find, tripping over nothing as she ran in. With Wannabe playing loud and clear in the room she tripped in.
“Are you okay?”
Sara looked up and saw a man with blue skin reaching his hand out for her, which she took and let the man help her up.
“I'm okay. Thanks for helping me up, I guess.” Sara felt her cheeks getting warm as she looked down at the ground.
“No problem.” the blue man said so nonchalantly, “The name's Wanderlust, by the way. And you?”
“Sara.”
“Sara.” Wanderlust repeated, “I like your name. I probably should introduce you to the other two.” Wanderlust gestured to the other two in the room, one with long pink hair and a shirt with a panda paw on it, and another that had purple hair in two big buns and an orange crop top with a big pink heart with matching shorts. “This one is Mihaly,” Wanderlust said as he gestured to the pink-haired one, then gesturing at the purple-haired one, “And this is Brezziana.”
“Mihaly.” Sara repeated as she looked at Mihaly, “I have to say, she's very pretty.”
“First off, it's 'They're very pretty'” Mihaly corrected, “And second off, thank you.”
“And Brezziana's very pretty too.”
“Aww, thank you, you look so pretty too!” Brezziana hugged Sara tight, squeezing almost all of the air out of her lungs.
“I'm sorry,” Sara said as she caught her breath after Brezziana let her go, “That I interrupted whatever it was that you were doing.”
“No need to be sorry,” Wanderlust reassured, “In fact, it's a good thing you came in.”
“And that's because?”
“We're in need of another person to join our group.” Wanderlust continued, “We're planning on doing a quintet performance for Wannabe, and we only have three in our group so far. So if you don't mind...”
Sara knew she should've said no, to spare herself from any humiliation or judgment. The dance competition would have so many people watching her dance, and some would be judging her on it. She should've said no, thanked them for offering, wished them well in finding two more people to join their group, and left. But instead, she smiled and said in the most cheerful tone, “Of course, I'd be happy to be part of your group.”